Research and analysis

Motivation and barriers to learning for young people not in education, employment or training

Aims to understand why 18 to 24 year olds are not in education, employment or training (NEET). BIS research paper number 87.

Documents

Details

To better understand young people aged 18 to 24 not in education, employment or training (NEET) the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) commissioned the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) to analyse data collected from interviews conducted as part of the NEET National Research Project.

This builds on the more extensive evidence about 16-18 year olds. The analysis explains the circumstances and motivations of young people who are not in education, employment or training (or have recently been in these circumstances).This aims to help provide more specific support for this group within the funding available.

This summary report establishes a number of categories based on the barriers young people feel they face and the factors that would motivate them to engage in learning. These include:

  • recent experience of being NEET
  • applied for a course
  • looking for learning opportunities
  • wanting to learn in future
  • no plans regarding learning
Published 1 February 2013